Can our community help discover the next great Android app? Welcome to a new experiment called #thenextinstall where we try to see if we can find an Android app in the rough, and boost its installs and exposure to new highs.

AfterFocus daily installs.

Last week our community selected AfterFocus, which is a neat camera app used to create DSLR-style background blurred photos. After it was featured on our site, the daily installs spiked to a 30-day high, and total installs have passed 100,000. The developers listened to the feedback from new users, and they say a Pro version with more features is coming in May.

This week the goal remains the same:

Find an app with less than 100k installs

Come up with a one or two sentence pitch that encourages users to install it

Week 3 Winner: Carrier Coverage

Once again, this week’s winner was an easy choice. Carrier Coverage was by far the most installed app last week among our community. The app attempts to answer the question ‘Which carrier is best for you?’, which is a pretty ambitious project.

The app is quite young with less than 10,000 installs, but we like the concept and think it can be a winner. In order for the service to become successful, it will need more users and that’s where you come in.

We reached out to the Carrier Coverage team to see if they could update us on the status of the app, and we got a pretty nice response from the founder Rob Jackson. If that name sounds familiar, he’s also the man that started Phandroid and AndroidForums. Rather than chop up his letter, I have included the full text below.

Thanks for featuring us in your weekly article. I was excited to hear we got included.

In terms of the app's progress, you can see on the bottom of our homepage that we have a roadmap, with our first goal of reaching critical mass in March 2012. While we consider our current 3,000+ users a modest success, we realize that isn't a critical mass. And to generate a critical mass, we'll need to have the best product. In our opinion, that all starts with properly curating the collected data.

When we first launched the app, we didn't allow rooted users to contribute data. Rooted users complained, and we quickly responded by working double time to push out a website and app update that allowed rooted users to submit and filter rooted data. We didn't originally plan that so many of our users would be rooted, and because this greatly affects the possible accuracy of data reporting, we've had to work long and hard to ensure the integrity of our data by way of manual moderation of devices, carriers, and combinations.

This has pushed back our release schedule, but we're confident that our decision to focus on data integrity is best for us and our users. We still fully plan to implement additional features such as 3G vs 4G reporting, data speed reporting, data visualization integration such as coverage maps, and much more.. so stay tuned. Heck... we could bump these bells and whistles to the top of our To Do list, but we think data accuracy should be priority #1. And that's why we think users will make Carrier Coverage their app of choice.

Android and Me has a tech savvy readership and we know some of them have complained about a few issues. We'd LOVE to hear from these users so we can help correct the bugs and release bug fixes and updates. We invite feedback in the Carrier Coverage Forums or users can e-mail us directly. As our promo video explains, we can't do it without the help of our users, so whether it's hate mail, fan mail, criticism, complaints, problems, issues, bugs, or a terribly cruel telegram sent by horse and carriage- we welcome it.

Thanks for the opportunity. We're happy to answer any and all questions (we'll be as transparent as possible), and our Lead Developer (Steve Albright) can answer any technical questions that you, your staff, or your users may have.Rob JacksonCarrier Coverage

Week 4 Challengers

Phonotto

Pitch: Tired of all the bells and whistles that come complete in today’s phones? Phonotto is the smartest way to convert a cheap smartphone in a simple phone for seniors.

What’s next? How can I participate?

Share this post with a friend who has an Android device and ask them to try out one of the apps from the list

Over the coming week, we will continue to monitor all the apps and see which generate the most buzz. We will be watching the installs, download clicks, review scores, coverage on other sites, and more to see which app comes out on top.

Next week we will name the winning app, and then put it up against 10 new apps to repeat the process.

Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He resides in Dallas and carries the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One as his daily devices. Ask him a question on Twitter or Google+ and he is likely to respond. | Ethics statement

Sadly the only app that seemed interesting to me, Photo Comics, can’t seem to be found on the Play Store app or website. And I can’t use Carrier Coverage either…Le sigh.

http://androidandme.com Taylor Wimberly

Sorry I think the link was busted. Should be fixed now.

Aaron_301

SUCCESS!

Edgar Cervantes

I always liked the idea of Carrier Coverage. I have been using it since day 1. It could be of great help to everyone. More people should definitely use it if we want more accurate stats, though. It is a community effort, so join in!

Mist

Says the guy who writes for Phandroid on the weekends. Dude, seriously, it’s sh*t, and so is Phandroid.

vetvito

Smart StatusBar, should be built in Android. Hopefully it’s in Jelly Bean.

Great apps this week I lo e the cÃ³mic book photo app its awesome also the special fx wow great job.

http://androidandme.com Taylor Wimberly

Weatherwise and Phonedeck are in the early lead.

Vance

Weatherwise was nice but I prefer the weather unlock screen in sense 4.0 .. it was especially cool during our thunder storm last night! – One S

frizzle

Easy keyboard is the best all around keyboard for your android phone or tablet.
5 star app!!! Tons of free themes and options that the others don’t have. Without all the laggy bells and whistles.
Check it out today. Free version also available to try.
Please help me make this the best keyboard for android.http://bit.ly/GetEasyKeyboard

Carrier Coverage groups my GSM Galaxy Nexus with the Verizon one, known for bad 3G reception (not that 4G ‘issue’ that was all in the news). It’s kind of unfair, because the GSM Nexus has AMAZING reception, whereas the CDMA model does not. Putting them together makes no sense.

On a good note, this site has pretty much proven my idea that the CDMA Galaxy Nexus has piss-poor reception in 3G (for voice, SMS). I can’t believe they released that phone with such bad reception.

Mist

I’m not sure which sucks more, Carrier Coverage, or Phandroid. I tried CC, it sucks. Phandroid, and their forums, suck too, they delete posts not for being offensive, filled with expletives, or just plain mean, but because one of the moderators or one of the illiterate bloggers (I’m looking at you, Chavez) removes them because they can. Don’t even get me started on AndroidForums 2, er, Carrier Coverage. Someone on the Google Play store wrote a review saying pretty much the same thing. This site may write articles for Richard Yarrell, but at least they’re not Phandroid.

android.fa.life

Carrier Coverage would be great but it just doesnt work on my phone ):

android.fa.life

Carrier Coverage would be great but it just doesnt work on my phone.

Jorge Vieira

Jist downloaded carrier coverage and i really love the purpose of this app hopefully more people download and cobtibute.

All these other apps seem all top notch too. So this week it looks tough.

Mark

I really appreciate the coverage for Wave Control!

I’m looking for beta testers, if anyone’s interested in helping me make sure it works well on all phones.
Oh and I’m toying with tablet support in the beta right now.

Email me if interested marksthinktank (at) gmail (dot) com

And if you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot, the feedback so far from people has been great!!

Sreekanth

I have a new app for you all.

Are you a Phone addict? Want to know how many times you have unlocked your phone in a day? on a average? or which day you unlocked the most. Phone Addict helps you to track all these details !!

Of the challengers, Phonedeck and the gallery app from Scalado have the most promise to be tops for the week. I’ve installed and used both, but I really like the looks of Phonotto as I played with it over the weeked. While it is still in beta testing, it’s a pretty polished app functionality wise. Speaking of wise, Weatherwise is an interesting app, but I can’t say I’m thrilled with the included theme, or that additional themes are in-app purchases. I don’t have a problem with them charging for themes, but another free option would be nice.